But do you think I'm cool? Developmental differences in striatal recruitment during direct and reflected social self-evaluations

Abstract

The current fMRI study investigates the neural foundations of evaluating oneself and others during early adolescence and young adulthood. Eighteen early adolescents (ages 11-14, M=12.6) and 19 young adults (ages 22-31, M=25.6) evaluated whether academic, physical, and social traits described themselves directly (direct self-evaluations), described their best friend directly (direct other-evaluations), described themselves from their best friend's perspective (reflected self-evaluations), or in general could change over time (control malleability-evaluations). Compared to control evaluations, both adolescents and adults recruited cortical midline structures during direct and reflected self-evaluations, as well as during direct other-evaluations, converging with previous research. However, unique to this study was a significant three-way interaction between age group, evaluative perspective, and domain within bilateral ventral striatum. Region of interest analyses demonstrated a significant evaluative perspective by domain interaction within the adolescent sample only. Adolescents recruited greatest bilateral ventral striatum during reflected social self-evaluations, which was positively correlated with age and pubertal development. These findings suggest that reflected social self-evaluations, made from the inferred perspective of a close peer, may be especially self-relevant, salient, or rewarding to adolescent self-processing--particularly during the progression through adolescence - and this feature persists into adulthood.

Keywords: Adolescence; Medial prefrontal cortex; Puberty; Self; Social cognition; Ventral striatum.

Fig. 1

Neuroimaging task. The neuroimaging task included two runs, with eight blocks per run. At the beginning of each block, participants were instructed to evaluate trait phrases according to a given perspective, followed by a series of nine trait phrases. Phrases were positively and negatively valenced and represented academic, physical, and social domains (all intermixed within blocks). In between evaluation blocks were blocks of rest. Note: The name of each participant's best friend was always included (e.g., “Lily”); s = seconds.

Fig. 2

Main effect of evaluative perspective. Repeated measures ANOVA, where evaluative perspective and domain served as the within-subjects factors and age group served as the between-subjects factor. Illustrated here is a significant main effect of evaluative perspective within cortical midline structures (engaged by direct self-, direct other-, and reflected self-evaluations) and bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (primarily engaged by malleability-evaluations). Note: x and y = left–right and anterior–posterior dimensions.

Fig. 3

Three-way interaction (age group × evaluative perspective × domain). Repeated measures ANOVA, where evaluative perspective and domain served as the within-subjects factors and age group served as the between-subjects factor. Illustrated here is a significant age group × evaluative perspective × domain interaction within bilateral ventral striatum. Note: x and y = left–right and anterior–posterior dimensions.

Fig. 4

Mean parameter estimates in ventral striatum across evaluative conditions. Interaction between evaluative perspective and domain. Panel (A) illustrates mean parameter estimates representing activity in the left ventral striatum (VS) cluster during reflected social self-evaluations within the adult group. Panel (B) illustrates mean parameter estimates representing activity in the left VS cluster during reflected social self-evaluations within the adolescent group. Note: L = left; VS = ventral striatum.

Fig. 5

Positive relationship between pubertal development and striatal activity during adolescent reflected social self-evaluations. Correlation between average Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) scores and mean parameter estimates representing activity in left ventral striatum (VS) cluster during adolescent reflected social self-evaluations. Note: L = left; VS = ventral striatum.